Share this with

Jose Mourinho aimed a dig in the direction of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City over the transfer policy in the blue half of Manchester.

The Portuguese will send his Manchester United side out against their bitter local rivals at the Etihad on Sunday at the end of a week where Guardiola’s team have come under fire after the leaked data exposing their approach to avoiding Financial Fair Play.

While Mourinho would not directly comment on the row, he took aim at City’s recruitment policy and moaned at their superior resources in the transfer market.

‘I am clearly rebuilding,’ he said.

‘In my first season, I got into a situation where there were players like Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick – ­phenomenal players and some of the most important players in the past years of the club – coming to the end.

Mourinho and Guardiola will go head-to-head on Sunday (Picture: Getty)

‘We had to get a player like Ibra [Zlatan Ibrahimovic] to help us to have a certain power to fight for something ­important, which was clearly to get back to the Champions League level.

Advertisement

Advertisement

‘But it’s been hard work, r­eally hard work, with people like Luke Shaw and Tony ­Martial, for example. Because for talented players like them to get to the level they are now is a process.

‘To transform talent in ­professional players into ­stability and performance is a process of hard work. So is it ­rebuilding? Yes.

‘If I need a full-back and I was able to buy four, it would be easier. So, when I needed a full-back, when I wasn’t happy with Luke Shaw’s level, the easiest thing would have been to buy four new players.

‘Some clubs can buy four full-backs. But we didn’t buy a left-back for three years ­because we were wishing and ­working for Luke Shaw to be that left-back. But during that ­process, we played Matteo ­Darmian, we played Daley Blind, we played Ashley Young, we played Marcos Rojo.

‘We didn’t buy four ­replacements – and that is a big difference. It takes less time when you buy four full-backs. To buy four, you need good scouting – and you need money.